Franklin Covey Co., trading as FranklinCovey and based in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

, is a coaching company which provides training and assessment services in the areas of leadership, individual effectiveness, and business execution for organizations and individuals. The company was formed on May 30, 1997, as a result of merger between Hyrum W. Smith's Franklin Quest and Stephen R. Covey's Covey Leadership Center. Among other products, the company has marketed the FranklinCovey planning system, modeled in part on the writings of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin (April 17, 1790) was an American polymath: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and Political philosophy, political philosopher.#britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the m ...

, and ''

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People ''The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People'' is a business and self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. First published in 1989, the book goes over Covey's ideas on how to spur and nurture personal change. He also explores the concept of effe ...

'', based on Covey's research into leadership ethics. FC Organizational Product is the official licensee of FranklinCovey products and continues to produce paper planning products based on Covey's time management system. FranklinCovey also has sales channels in more than 120 countries worldwide.

History

Franklin Quest and the Covey Leadership Center operated independently until January 22, 1997, when the two companies jointly announced a merger and public offering valued at $160 million.

Merger

Hyrum W. Smith, then the CEO of Franklin Quest, expected that the 1997 acquisition would increase market value through the synergistic combination of Covey's ''7 Habits'' book with the

Franklin Planner The Franklin Planner is a paper-based time management system created by Hyrum W. Smith first sold in 1984 by Franklin International Institute, Inc. The planner itself is the paper component of the time management system developed by Smith. Hyr ...

system and with the company's associated training courses. However, after the merger FranklinCovey's stock price dropped from around $20 per share to a low of under $1 per share by early 2003. As of June 1, 2006, it traded around $7 per share which has increased their purchase rate. From late 2009 to mid-2010, the stock price moved in the range $5.5 to $8.

Products and services

In 2008, FranklinCovey's CEO, Bob Whitman, changed the company's direction by selling off its paper products business and shifting focus to in-person training sessions and live-online training through the internet. The spinoff of the paper planner business became known as FC Organizational Products and maintains a contract with FranklinCovey as the authorized licensee of the brand name. Together the two companies still maintain one retail location, located at FranklinCovey's corporate campus in Salt Lake City. FranklinCovey has more recently focused on various in-person and live-online training for individuals and organizations, ranging from leadership development training, business execution planning, sales performance, and individual effectiveness training. Typically, the company will correspond their products with book launches written by FranklinCovey consultants or industry

thought leader A thought leader has been described as an individual or firm recognized as an authority in a specific field. A thought leader is a person who specializes in a given area and whom others in that industry turn to for guidance. As the term implies, ...

s. The company's core training products it remains known for is ''

'', ''Leading at the Speed of Trust'', and ''The 4 Disciplines of Execution''. The LeaderInMe program is a "whole school transformation model and process" based around Covey's work. As of 2024, there were LeaderInMe schools in the Guatemala, Jordan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Qatar, Taiwan, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and every state in the United States. According to the Center for Research and Reform in Education at

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

, students at schools using the program reported that teachers were "nicer" and that discipline problems had declined. The program has been criticized for its connections to Mormonism, and imposing "a cult-like, robotic, corporate atmosphere” into public schools, indoctrinating kids through memorized songs and

catchphrases A catchphrase (alternatively spelled catch phrase) is a phrase or expression recognized by its repeated utterance. Such phrases often originate in popular culture and in the arts, and typically spread through word of mouth and a variety of mass ...

related to the seven habits.

References

External links

* FranklinCovey history a
Funding Universe
{{Authority control Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies established in 1997 Companies based in Utah 1997 establishments in Utah 1997 initial public offerings